One of the hardest things for me to adapt to since the big move is cooking dinner. For the past several years I've lived on my own and never had to take into consideration what anyone else would like to eat, much less had to put the effort into actually cooking. I often had cereal, sandwiches, or microwave steamed veggies for dinner and it wasn't uncommon for me to go a whole week without eating meat.
Now that I'm staying with D for a while, this has all changed... Especially since his meals primarily consist of meats and carbs. I've been trying to come up with recipes that we'll both enjoy and that I can actually cook, but what tends to be happening is Ill pick the recipe, he'll alter it as needed and end up doing pretty much all of the cooking. I try to help as much as possible, but have found myself feeling helpless and ashamed that I cannot, in fact cook! :(
There have been several "oh" moments when he's had to explain to me the proper way to do something, or just embarrassing things I've done like last night when I dumped an entire box of rice on the counter because I thought it would be in a bag inside the box. Nope!
I also have a confession about the cookies I made for dessert...
I haven't admitted this one to anybody yet (D. cough, cough), just blamed it on a new recipe when in fact it was all me. Guilt has now taken over...
Yesterday I found an easy recipe for natural, flourless peanut butter cookies.
1c peanut butter
1c honey
1 egg
1tsp baking soda
Mix and Bake at 350 for 10 mins
I realized when gathering the ingredients that we didn't have any baking soda, but we DID have baking powder. Well what's the difference? After Googling substituting one for the other I found out that I COULD NOT substitute the baking powder because the cookies would turn out "gooier" then they were supposed to.
But I'm a firm believer that I can doctor any recipe (even after multiple failed attempts to do so in the past).
Since I was only making 1/2 the recipe, I decided that using the whole egg instead of half would definitely make it ok to substitute baking powder for baking soda.
My batter turned out pretty runny so I added a little more baking powder and peanut butter, spooned the soup onto the pan and stuck them in the oven. 10 mins later I had pancake-looking cookies that fell flat as they cooled. When I went to taste test one I realized it was so gooey I couldn't even scrape it off the baking sheet! No problem, they just need a little more time to cook right? I threw them back into the oven and broiled them hoping they'd come out nice and crispy. And they ALMOST did :) At least they tasted good!
The next time I make these cookies and actually use baking soda I'm sure they'll be amazing, and I won't have to lie/ blame the outcome on the recipe ;)
When this grace period of learning to cook is over and I've been re-named Betty Crocker, Ill invite everyone over for a gourmet meal. Scout's honor :)
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